New Fairfield University President Mark Nemec at Bellarmine Hall on the school's campus in Fairfield, Conn. on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. Nemec, a graduate of Yale, is the first layperson president in the school's history. less

New Fairfield University President Mark Nemec at Bellarmine Hall on the school's campus in Fairfield, Conn. on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. Nemec, a graduate of Yale, is the first layperson president in the ... more

FAIRFIELD — The day he learned he got the job as president of Fairfield University might have been the best day of Mark Nemec’s life.

But his middle son came home upset about something that had happened at school.

So the thrill for this 48-year-old father of four children, ages 6 to 14, was tempered.

“Being a father is what animates me,” Nemec said from the enclosed stone porch of an office he has been in just shy of two months.

It also gives him a perspective no one else has brought to the role in the history of a university founded in 1942 by the Society of Jesus.

Nemec is the first layperson in the job in a permanent capacity. Fairfield plucked him from the University of Chicago, a top-tier school where he was an academic dean.

More Information

More about Mark Nemec

He is the author of “Ivory Towers and Nationalist Minds: Universities, Leadership, and the Development of the American State” and was a contributor to “The Educational Legacy of Woodrow Wilson.”

Before Chicago, he worked as president and chief executive officer of Eduventures, a Boston-based information service firm and had been a member of the executive team of Forrester Research.

His sport is rugby. He played it in college and at the semi-pro level. He still plays for fun when he can.

The break in tradition does not seem to matter to those who have met him.

“It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, but a fact of life,” said Bill Connelly, an alumnus and former university trustee.

There were plenty of Jesuits teaching on campus when Connelly, an insurance broker, was an undergraduate majoring in English in 1969.

That is no longer the case.

The number of Jesuits available and qualified to lead a comprehensive university of 5,100 students is dwindling.

Better, Connelly said, to have a smart guy who himself was educated in the Jesuit tradition.

“It’s a new era for Fairfield,” Connelly said. “It will be terrific. ... He has lots of ideas.”

Right time

Nemec said it has been pointed out to him that while he is the first lay president at Fairfield, he is its ninth Ignatian, someone brought up in the Jesuit tradition. He attended Loyola High School, a Jesuit college preparatory school in Los Angeles, before heading to Yale University for his undergraduate degree in English, and University of Michigan for a master’s degree and then a doctorate in political science.

Faith, he said, is important to him.

His goal is to take the Jesuit mission of forming young men and women for others, and translate it into modern terms.

“It’s really important for us to stay relevant to our times,” Nemec said, “and become the model Jesuit Catholic university for the 21st century.”

That doesn’t mean change so much as taking what he said is a great institution with student formation at its core, and extending its impact.

“We want to transform more lives,” Nemec said. “Universities are not institutions that can stand still. If we are not progressing, we are losing ground.”

To maintain its relevance, Nemec wants to see the university expand its graduate programs, become more national in scope and more global in its outlook.

“We have an opportunity to have broader impact,” Nemec said.

Right guy

“I am really optimistic that he is going to be able to get Fairfield up to the next level,” said Kristin McMahon, president-elect of the Fairfield University Alumni Association. She has two daughters at the university this fall. “He exhibited a passion for higher education that was quite evident from the first encounter with him.”

Nemec was selected in April after a nationwide search. His predecessor, the Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, held the job for a dozen years before being reassigned last year. In the interim, Fairfield Provost Lynn Babbington held the job. This summer, she moved on to become president of Chaminade University in Hawaii.

Born in Chicago, Nemec moved to California when he was 2. His career has taken him all over the map, and from academia to the private sector and back.

His wife, Suzy, is from Massachusetts, so returning East is like coming home, Nemec said.

In Fairfield, the family is renting until the university’s presidential residence can be retrofitted for a family of six and a big yellow Labrador retriever who likes to run.

His kids have become familiar with local beaches and summer camps. In the fall, they will attend local schools.

People should know that as president, he has high expectations for himself and everyone around him, Nemec said.

“Everything we do is a reflection of ourselves and also the institutions we work for and with,” he said.

He believes in shared governance and working with teams, but also sees himself as the steward of the institution, keeping everyone pulling in the same direction.

Eventually, he plans to teach a class on campus in the political science department.

Nemec has lectured about the cost of college, but said more important than the debt a student leaves with, is the lifetime value of the education the student receives.

To him, that translates not just to a paycheck, but to how engaged graduates become in their communities. He said Fairfield grads score high in that regard.

“I feel like (Fairfield) is in a good position,” Nemec said. “The capital campaign is in good shape. ... We have a strong sense of core values. We are student-centric, comprehensive and there is a willingness to build upon our legacy for new and innovative programs.”